From the Sunday Mirror, with thanks to Jimmy Floyd:
BRITAIN’S toughest jail is to build a £1.6million mosque for prisoners including hook-handed preacher Abu Hamza.
Muslim inmates at Belmarsh Prison, who include Hamza and other suspected al-Qaeda terrorists, have objected to praying in a “multi-denominational” chapel where they have to cover up Christian crosses.
Now prison chiefs have controversially agreed to give them a separate place of worship with its own dome and minaret.
Detailed plans for the 150ft x 150ft site “” on disused land “” will be put before Greenwich Borough Council for approval after the Prison Service gave the green light. The mosque is expected to be built next year….
A Belmarsh prison officer: “This is an absolute disgrace. How on Earth can the authorities justify spending £1.6million?
“The money should be used for something else worthwhile — not so these people can pray in such luxury.
“Nobody else is having a new building built for them, we don’t have a synagogue, for example.” The source added: “This is political correctness gone mad just because they have kicked up a stink. This isn’t a makeshift building, it’s a full-on mosque. Staff are totally disheartened at pandering again to the prisoners.”…
The move is the latest incident where prison bosses have found themselves tiptoeing round the requirements of Muslims at the jail.
In August Governor Geoff Hughes sent a letter to inmates apologising for putting pork “” forbidden for Muslims and Jews “” on the menu. He ordered the meat to be removed from the menus of ALL prisoners.
Officers were also told to do overtime so they could take Muslim inmates to Friday prayers during the holy month of Ramadan. Radical cleric Abu Hamza, 47, is being held at Belmarsh charged with 16 offences including soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred. He was originally arrested pending extradition proceedings to the USA before being charged with alleged offences in the UK….
The prophet Mohammed said “The whole world is a mosque” “” meaning that Muslims can pray anywhere that is clean.